Lawmakers OK budget bills

Published 9:44 pm, Friday, October 2, 2009

HARTFORD -- In a sprint-like four hours, Democratic majorities in the House and Senate on Friday approved the final legislation authorizing the two-year $37.6 billion budget that took effect July 1.

Barring any potential vetoes by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, who has been on a family vacation in South Carolina this week, the action finally ends the budget battle that dates back to January. Rell's office said Friday night there will be no comment on the legislation until next week.

Minority Republicans who generally opposed the bills, scolded Democrats for ignoring the rising tide of red ink that may have already put the young budget into a half-billion-dollar deficit, which has probably killed a plan to lower the 6-percent sales tax to 5.5 percent in January.

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"This is like watching a bad movie over and over and over again," said Senate Minority Leader John McKinney, R-Fairfield, pointing out that the comptroller this week predicted a $500 million deficit. "We now know that sales-tax cut was a false promise to the people of Connecticut."

The GOP lawmakers predicted it won't be long before the growing deficit brings the General Assembly back to deal with it.

But Democrats said there's a chance that the economy will turn around and revenue fueled by the new, higher rates on the state's highest income earners may help balance the spending package.

While much of the bill language Friday -- in a session that began at 3 p.m. and ended at 6:30 in the Senate and 7 p.m. in the House -- is arcane legalese implementing the major sections of the budget, other items provided for sharp debates on the direction lawmakers want to take the state.

In particular, House and Senate members devoted much of the debate on the issue of in-school suspensions, which school boards had been required to adopt in July, but in Friday's legislation the date was pushed back until July 2010.

Democrats backed off a battle with Gov. M. Jodi Rell on $50 million in new fee increases in the state Department of Motor Vehicles and accepted her recent veto.

They also reduced a licensing fee for licensed practical nurses; cut the new salt-water-fishing license from $30 to $10; and established a green-buildings tax credit effective in January 2012.

The fund was created in 1992 and funded by surcharges on "Preserve the Sound" license plates. Blumenthal ruled that the fund was a charity and people who contributed to it have reasonable expectations that their money would be used for Sound preservation and Education.

The legislation turnaround means a return of $600,000 previously taken from the fund and invested in the state's General Fund, plus another $600,000 that is expected to flow into the fund over the next two years, according to a legislative analysis of the legislation.

Rep. Terry Backer, D-Stratford, who is the director of the non-profit Soundkeeper Fund, said he believes that public sentiment saved the fund.

"I think it is a measure of the popularity of the program and the discontent of the people of the state," Backer said in an interview after the House vote. "There was an uproar from the people. I don't think it was legislators that caused the change, it was people calling their lawmakers."

"Isn't it true, folks, that this is one area where we don't have to spend $1.3 million?" Cafero asked, noting the state's soft, recessionary economy and rising deficit. "That is the problem with government. That's why people aren't too high on us these days."

But the longest House and Senate debates were focused on the issue of in-school suspensions. It would take the place, in many cases, of the decades-old tradition of preventing pupils with disciplinary problems from attending school.

Under the bill, when the 2010-11 school year starts, most suspensions will occur within town and city schools. Republicans called it an order from the state that will cost millions of dollars for schools statewide to find rooms to put suspended children and pay adults to supervise them.

Cafero, a longtime expulsion officer for Norwalk schools, said the law will cost his Board of Education $250,000 to comply with the law at a time when money is tight. He estimated that the law will cost Stamford schools as much as $600,000 to comply.

Cafero admitted it's a good idea, but the time isn't right for it and it should be delayed at least two years.

"We can't say it's a great program, we gotta do it, but we ain't gonna pay for it," Cafero said, noting that it's a two-year budget. "Is money going to come out of the sky next year?"

Sen. Edwin A. Gomes, D-Bridgeport, noted that a burglary ring of as many as 20 teenagers, many suspended from local schools, was recently arrested by Bridgeport police. He said in-school suspensions would have given those teens the control they need.

"These were kids under suspension, unsupervised, running loose on the streets," Gomes said. "There is no reason for these children to be running the streets when they should be in school. I think the money is well spent."

"These children need to be in school," said Sen. Toni N. Harp, D-New haven, noting that she's seen school-age kids routinely vandalize cars in her neighborhood during school hours.

Sen. Gayle S. Slossberg, D-Milford, was the lone "no" vote in a 32-1 ballot on a school-funding bill. She said she opposed the legislation because it contained caps on special-education funding that could hurt her district, because if there is not enough money to fund special education statewide, caps could be enacted.

"If anything, I think we as a state should be responsible for the mandates we have, especially when it comes to educating our kids," she said in an interview after the Senate adjourned.

Slossberg said that despite the finality of the day's quick - for the General Assembly -- proceedings, she expects to be return to the Capitol before the end of the year to address the growing deficit and revise the state's campaign-finance laws that were rejected recently by a federal judge.

Cafero, in valedictory remarks to the House of representatives, agreed. "I think we're going to be back here pretty soon," he said. "I love you all but I won't miss you. I think we have done a disservice to the state of Connecticut."

"We should be meeting now and debating what will be a deficit in the budget," McKinney said. "Let's heed the warning of Comptroller Nancy Wyman and start spending less money."